A ghost story seen through the ghost’s perspective? That’s the unusual if compelling premise for Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” in theaters this weekend.
The low-key thriller begins by orienting us with the invisible ghost’s tour of a grand old house that is soon sold to a family of four – parents, two kids. Only later do we discover the history here. And danger.
“I read the script and found that I had to read it immediately again. Like right after I finished reading it, I went back to the beginning and read it again,” Lucy Liu, 56, recalled in a phone interview this week.
Her Rebecca, a mother and wife, is a driven businesswoman with perhaps a history of shady deals.
“I don’t see her as ‘high strung.’ I see her as somebody who has great favoritism for her son and is open about it, which I don’t think most families are. She is somebody who futurizes this world for her son and has a very planned out idea of how she wants things to unfold.
“And when they don’t, it really changes the dynamic of how she interacts in the world. Whenever anyone’s felt loss, you’re just a very different person. Oftentimes people go back to where they were. They reset.
“But sometimes it really changes them — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“The movie,” she added, “is about how that creates a space to be in contact with other energies.
“When you don’t have that, there’s a lot of waste, pollution. Life pollution. It can create a corruption within your own world that you’re closed off to.”
While there are hints about Rebecca’s business, nothing further is explained.
“That’s the beauty of it,” Liu’s decided. “Like, whatever happened to that? Things get turned on their head and that’s great — because it’s not what you’re expecting.
“You think something’s going to unfold, but something completely different presents itself. And that’s wonderful! Because it’s unexpected.
“As you’re following this other story, it turns out it’s completely different from what you thought.”
Also quite different: For the first time in a 30 years-plus career that includes three “Charlie’s Angels’ movies and a long run as Dr. Watson in TV’s weekly “Elementary,” Liu’s Soderbergh movie filmed entirely in chronological order.
“It was like a play. We sat down and read the script together to hear it out loud. Steven also had a dinner for us as we bonded as a family. Because the way we work together, we were always on camera at the same time. There was no hiding from the lens.
“That was a wonderful way to really be there for each other as a family — this dysfunctional family, no less.”
“Presence” opens Jan. 24